Sunday, December 4, 2011

Spotlight: Bob Wilson bobblehead (Bif Bang Pow!)

We'll start our week-long Bif Bang Pow! spotlight with a long-overdue review of their Bob Wilson bobblehead. Astute readers will recall that, shortly after getting my hands on this particular item a few months ago, I accidentally, well... beheaded the poor thing. This unfortunate mishap necessitated the purchase of a replacement (and a delay of my spotlight). A new Bob is in my possession now, so without further ado, let's have a look.

Bob Wilson is, of course, played by William Shatner in season five's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." Wilson, who is recovering from a nervous breakdown and traveling home by air, repeatedly sees a creature outside on the wing of the plane, tampering with the engines. This bobblehead is intended to accompany the earlier Gremlin bobblehead, and they function beautifully in tandem as bookends. Despite the intrinsic chunkiness of each bobblehead, the two achieve a kind of elegance when combined.

But how does Bobblin' Bob fare on his own? Well, they certainly got Shatner's likeness down (much better than on their Bob Wilson action figure, which we'll look at later today). I love the way he's looking sideways at The Gremlin.

Note that the inside of the airplane's cabin is depicted on Bob's left. The window is actually cut out, completing the illusion. Meanwhile, on the other side:

It's the outside of the plane! This is a nice touch, completing the opposite approach of the Gremlin (in effect, the inside of the Bob bobblehead matches the outside of the Gremlin bobblehead, and vice versa). Here's a quote from my review of The Gremlin, published over a year ago: "Y'now, if Bif Bang Pow! ends up doing a companion Bob Wilson (Shatner's character) bobblehead, it would be ultra-cool to use a similar (albeit opposite) approach... just a thought." Maybe too much Twilight Zone over the years has rendered me a bit psychic, I dunno.

The Bif Bang Pow! logo, along with the usual copyright information, can be found on the underside of the bobblehead. Oddly enough, The Twilight Zone logo is nowhere to be found (this is the first TZ bobblehead without it), even though it could've easily been placed in the big blank space on the back of Bob's seat.

The TZ logo IS printed on the underside of The Gremlin bobblehead, though, and since it's unlikely that you'll own one without the other, maybe this isn't such a big deal.

The Gremlin's underside. Not what it sounds like.

Bob weighs in at exactly 16 ounces, which makes him quite a bit lighter than The Gremlin (that beast is a whopping 22 ounces!), which I guess makes him a bit less sturdy for bookending, especially if you're pushing him up against some beefy hardbacks. I've got Bob on semi-light duty holding up DVDs and blu-rays, and he's performing like a champ.

Bob Wilson is a great addition to the family of Twilight Zone bobbleheads, and if you've already got The Gremlin, you really can't say no to him. And even if you don't have The Gremlin... hey, it's William Shatner, a larger-than-life legend, in bobblehead form (but NOT as Captain Kirk for a change). Bif Bang Pow! doesn't disappoint with this release. A must have.